Zambia coach Patrick Phiri doesn't know why defender Elijah Tana has been dropped from the team's final 23-man squad for the African Cup of Nations. "Right now Tana is sitting next to me. But first let me get in touch with the secretariat and then you can call me after about 30 minutes," he told Zambian paper Sunday Post. When asked whether he has the sole responsibility of picking the players, Phiri declined to answer. "Let me hear from the secretariat, that's when I will be able to comment," he added. Despite Phiri's assertion, Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) technical director Henshel Chitembeya insisted no one interfered in Phiri's job. "It is only Patrick Phiri who will choose which players to include and which ones not to, based on his own reasons. What we should do now is to support him." The 30-year-old Tana was on target in Zambia's 3-1 victory over Egypt in the 1996 African Cup of Nations. Zambia will play in Group C of CAN 2008 in Ghana along with defending champions Egypt, four-time winners Cameroon and Sudan.
